Having an opportunity to design a new splash screen, along with still images and a product page animation for one of my essential tools, was a huge honor. It's a relatively short piece, but knowing it will be seen by countless Cinema 4D users every day brings me an immense amount of joy.
This concept has been on my mind for a while. I wondered what would happen if umbrellas fell from the sky instead of rain, and I imagined that they would open in a way that is similar to raindrops when they splash on impact. As an artist, I found the idea very interesting because I love to play with the physical properties of everyday objects in ways that could never happen in real life.
One of the main challenges was to bring the umbrella to a rest within the given time. I used rigid body dynamics to achieve a realistic collision with the ground, which would have been difficult to accomplish through manual animation. However, at the same time, I didn't have control over when the umbrella would stop or if it would stop in the desired position.
